Meaning
The person who chooses and plays the records at a sound-system dance or on the radio. Distinct from the English sense of 'DJ', the selecta in the Jamaican tradition picks and spins the tunes, reading the crowd and building the vibe, while the 'deejay' (the MC) toasts and chats over them. A great selecta is the heartbeat of the session, pulling wheel-ups and forwards with a killer selection, and the whole art of the sound system turns on the selecta's skill in choosing exactly the right tune at the right moment.
Examples
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Di selecta wheel up di tune two time.
The selector rewound and replayed the track twice.
'wheel up' is the act of pulling a record back to restart a hot tune, a selecta's signature move.
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Dat selecta deh have di baddest dubplate dem.
That selector has the best exclusive dubplates.
'baddest' means best; 'deh' marks the specific one being pointed out.
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Yuh a call yuhself a selecta an yuh cyaa read di crowd?
You call yourself a selector and you can't read the crowd?
'cyaa' = cannot; reading the crowd is the core skill being questioned.
Origin
From English 'selector', reshaped by Jamaican pronunciation that drops the final 'r' and softens the vowel; rooted in the sound system culture that emerged from the 1950s.
How it’s used
Respected title within dancehall and reggae culture. Calling a true selecta a 'DJ' can be seen as ignorant of the tradition, since the two roles are historically separate.